


The starling

by darkrogue1 (Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse)



Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Gen, I'm still confused about what Peter is to Nightingale, Not Beta Read, Potential Major Spoilers if I'm right and if you haven't seen it that way already, That's two big ifs - but still, Title is self-explanatory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-12
Updated: 2017-11-12
Packaged: 2019-02-01 09:12:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12701826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse/pseuds/darkrogue1
Summary: A retelling of Peter Grant's magical story, as pertaining to his nickname.WARNING : I'm making a hypothesis about Peter's magical nickname. This might contain SPOILERS for future books IF I'm right.





	The starling

**Author's Note:**

> All the evidence I have is circumstantial, and something plausible is not necessarily true.  
> Still, this is a lot of circumstantial evidence.

Peter Grant is a starling. But even if he is learning magic from the Nightingale, it doesn't follow that this means a bird's name. And even if the man sometimes refers to himself as Lord Grant's son, this has nothing to do with the popularity of his dad, and everything to do with his magical essence.

 

Peter Grant has his lot of human failings, as do most people of mixed magical descent. But as far as his supernatural genes express themselves, he has the most usual ferric shortcomings. He is easily distracted for once, kind of diffuse and not completely always there. He is arrogant too, full of air if not gassy.

 

Also he always has been a charmer. Attractive. He has this kind of pull on people around him -- some gravitational force which draw people closer and closer to him until he releases them. Sometime they escape, if they are too fast for him to capture them. He's hot too and it helps. Between that and the faint radio-like waves he get from people, he gets very good at reading their sexual preferences. It is more than body language.

 

When he gets his first introduction to Newtonian magic, he hasn't found himself yet. His powers are diffuse and nebulous, and not immediately recognizable for what they are. He is still young, still learning, still growing. _Scientia Potentia Potestasque_. However you say it, Knowledge Is Power, and ever since he came to being, Peter has been absorbing knowledge in what seems to be a bottomless memory. He learns and he grows. With the power he gains mass. He doesn't get it and blames boxing and Pocket Quidditch instead.

 

Peter grows and concentrates and starts getting the right form down, and that's when Skygarden happens*. Lesley's treason hits him fast and hard and he breaks down. It is not outwardly obvious, and the people around him might be puzzled by his apparent indifference and quiet, but magically it screams to all who can listen. He is collapsing.

 

He gets hotter in anger every day and collapses a bit more until he ignites and becomes what he is; a starling. Of course everybody in the vicinity notices, as is normal for an event of this magnitude.

 

Peter is bright. He has always been even if at first he was more into temperature and infrared. But now he has grown too big to be a brown dwarf. He is bright, sure, but at the same time he is not the brightest tool in the shed. That is all right, he is not fully a star yet.

 

The problem is that he is still angry, still growing hotter, still collapsing. Varavara, the Night Witch, proposes her help, but Nightingale refuses. Peter is his... many things, but most importantly he is his responsibility. Starforging is an undocumented, unheard-of technique, but he would try. He would take the burn, he would let himself be charred to the bones trying to channel this excess power before he lets the Russian Practitioner any close to Peter.

 

He would have done it too, if the Rivers had not proposed an arrangement. Beverley volunteers; Peter likes her and she is already in his orbit. Besides she is the only available River who is mature enough.

 

There will be a debt. Not a too high one since it is a matter of everyone's safety, but Beverley Brook does gain in influence that night, when the agreement is reached.

 

She helps Peter curb his anger and he stops collapsing, but he is still unstable -- too hot -- and Nightingale takes the risk to intervene from a distance. After that Beverley helps him cool down. By now she is too close, she can't escape Peter. He is damn hot and attractive and makes her water boil, but she lets out his excess energy in bursts of steam -- her flow rate allows it. Peter is not collapsing anymore, he stabilizes.

 

He is a starling. The starling, since he is the only one currently present on Earth. The poor things tend to burn themselves too quickly and go out in a bright flash of light. This could still happen to Peter. This is what Tyburn fears.  


 

But the agreement holds. Beverley keeps him cool as he grows. If he knew, Peter would joke about Iron Man and his nuclear core, but that's essentially what she is doing; cooling him like a river by a Nuclear Plant. Peter grows and learns in a steady rhythm under Nightingale's watchful eyes. That's part of the reason why Nightingale won't let Peter unsupervised in the magical library : it is the truth that he might by accident never come out of it again if he gains too much mass in a burst.

 

Nightingale might be playing with fire, but contrary to what Peter seems to believe, he would not snuff the light of life out of magical beings, just for being themselves. Some creatures have to be watched, contained or channeled though. Nightingale watches over Peter.

 

The police station has a pool going on, about how Peter will turn out. DCI Nightingale doesn't dare to be hopeful, but out of the many ways Peter could die, a large number of them wouldn't allow him to ever collect -- if there even is an Earth left then. So he puts down his hope. At a certain point, Peter will have to ascend to a higher plane of existence. Either his magical part will, or he will physically have to, for life on Earth to stand a chance.

 

Anyway, Peter has time to grow in his Full Name yet. When he will get it, people will know it. And if by some incredible hazard it is not a flashy tale, they always could revert to the Latin basis. He would be the closest star then. Peter Grant, _genius stellaris_ , Proximus.

  
  
  
  
  


* The Faceless man has something to say about Peter's mass too. The boy on his back as he drifts down is not only heavy with a normal body weight, and he has to use all he has to keep them both steady, when it seems he has 5 or 6Gs pressure on his back. And of course he doesn't tries anything and stays down when they land : he is using all his power to keep his body form intact and to prevent the sheer weight from crushing his ribcage.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping to hell Peter isn't Mr Punch's King Sol.


End file.
